Max, total, and circulating supply: What are they?

Contents page

Three main metrics are used to evaluate a token’s supply: Max supply, Total supply, and Circulating supply.

Max supply

The max supply refers to the maximum number of tokens or coins that a project can generate. This cap is usually set by the project team at its inception and cannot be exceeded unless a major code modification, such as a hard fork, occurs.

For example, Bitcoin (BTC) has a max supply of 21 million BTC. This means that no additional BTC can be created once this limit is reached.

It’s important to note that a project’s max supply is generally fixed. However, it can also be infinite, meaning new tokens can be continuously issued without a cap. For example, Ethereum and Solana do not have a finite max supply.

Total supply

The total supply represents the total quantity of tokens that have already been created and exist at a given time. It includes both tokens in circulation and those that are locked (staking, cliff, vesting, etc.) or unavailable to the public (treasury, reserves, etc.).

Thus, it is calculated by taking the total number of created tokens and subtracting those that have been permanently burned or removed from circulation.

Formula:

If no tokens have been burned because the project does not include such a mechanism, then the total supply equals the total number of created tokens.

If a project has a fixed max supply, all tokens have been issued, and no burning has occurred, then the total supply is identical to the max supply. For example, Cardano (ADA) has a total supply and max supply of 45 billion ADA because all tokens have been created and no burn mechanism is planned.

Multi-chain tokens

Total supply is an on-chain metric since it is recorded in the token’s smart contract. However, depending on the project’s architecture and whether it is deployed on a single blockchain or multiple (multi-chain), the total supply may be distributed in different ways across several blockchains.

A single main blockchain

If a token is issued only on one blockchain, the total supply corresponds to the supply on that blockchain. For example, Ondo (ONDO) was initially deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. Its total supply corresponds only to the tokens created on Ethereum, which is 10 billion tokens.

A main blockchain + secondary blockchain

Some projects create all their tokens on a main blockchain and use bridges to transfer them to other blockchains. For example, Chainlink (LINK) creates all its tokens on Ethereum, its primary deployment blockchain. However, they allow users to utilize their tokens on BSC or Solana via a bridge. In this case, the total supply remains the one on Ethereum (1 billion LINK), even though tokens are circulating on other blockchains.

Multiple main blockchains (Cross-chain supply)

Some tokens are deployed across multiple blockchains. In this case, the total supply corresponds to the sum of tokens present on each blockchain. For example, Beam (BEAM) has a total supply of 59.2 billion on Ethereum, 1.2 billion on BSC, and 103 million on Avalanche, resulting in a total supply of 60.5 billion BEAM.